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After years of planning, construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) has started in Hawaii. This gigantic next-generation telescope will provide astronomers with unparalleled power — about 10 times the resolution of Hubble — to observe the intricacies of the universe from the comfort of Earth. However, its location atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano has some local residents up in arms. It’s a case of the age-old clash of tradition with scientific progress.

As the name of the instrument suggests, the Thirty Meter Telescope will have a total reflective surface that’s 30 meters (about 98 feet) in diameter. It will actually be composed of 492 small hexagonal mirrors that serve as part of the telescope’s new “adaptive optics” system. This might be the most important innovation of the TMT because it may save us from blasting expensive telescopes into space. Well, most of the time.

The adaptive optics at work in the TMT are based on technology pioneered in the twin Keck telescopes, which are also located near the top of Mauna Kea. The Thirty Meter Telescope will be able to make fine adjustments to its focus to account for the blurring effects of Earth’s thick, soupy atmosphere. That’s why we’ve positioned telescopes like Hubble (and the upcoming James Webb Telescope) in space where the atmosphere can’t interfere with our view of the heavens.

The adaptive optics system being developed for use in the TMT uses a pair of deformable mirrors to correct for the atmospheric blurring. Essentially, the shape of the mirror itself can subtly change to correct for the effects of atmospheric turbulence in real time. Scientists call this Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO). Similar to Keck, the TMT will use a wavefront sensor to sample the incoming light and determine the pattern of distortion. The telescope needs a control in order to find the right correction, which is why TMT will be equipped with the handsome laser depicted above — a powerful artificial guidestar.

TMT will give astronomers a tool powerful enough to do long term studies on dark matter, supermassive black holes, and galactic formation. It could also assist in locating exoplanets out in universe until the more specialized instruments of the Webb telescope are online.

Thirty Meter Telescope complex, side view

Astronomers don’t anticipate a problem getting adaptive optics to work in the TMT — it’s essentially a scaled up version of the technology that has been successful in the Keck observatory (the Keck telescopes use 10 meter mirrors). However, protesters are expected to continue opposing the project, possibly resulting in delays. Native Hawaiians believe the slopes of volcanoes are sacred ground, and as such, should not be built upon. Protesters were able to hold up the groundbreaking ceremony briefly by blocking a road, but everything is currently on schedule for a 2022 debut.

TMT isn’t without competition in the mega-telescope sphere. A pair of projects in the Chilean Andes are already being planned that will boast 24 and 39 meter light-collecting surfaces. Each of the three big telescope projects are expected to have different specialities based on the final loadout of instruments they have. This breed of telescope is designed to investigate the biggest questions in the universe, so there’s certainly room for all three.

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Dozerman

This should be awesome. It’s such a shame that people are protesting this as if it’s some form of pollution when it’s simply a big telescope that will help us unravel the secrets of the universe placed on top of a mountain that people rarely visit. Best of luck to all teams around the world and all the competitors!

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I feel like i’m in the minority here, but I can’t be the only one who thinks that putting the conversion to feet is necessary. Even if I didn’t use the metric system on a daily basis, I’d be a moron to not know that 30 meters is a big-ass telescope.

dan_2000

You not a minority. I think it is dumb too. Those who can’t relate to 30 m are just ignorant Luddites who serve no useful purpose.

Kenneth Thomas

Everybody knows the 30m is the same as half an hour.

dan_2000

Who is everybody? The whole world knows that 30 m is 30 metres and 30 min (Time) or 30′ (Angle) is 30 minutes.

The problem is that there is no treaty of cession to legally transfer Hawaiian sovereignty to the United States, which means the TMT project is being carried out under the prolonged and illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States that began on August 12, 1898. There should be a moratorium on the telescope until Hawaiʻi is de-occupied, and approval can be requested from the Hawaiian Kingdom. If the TMT has enough merit it, then it should have no problem getting approved by the Hawaiian Kingdom.

MisterBlat

“Now I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where I’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow…”

gary oak

wat

dc

It’s a Jimmy Buffet song…. I

jumbo71

just to find aliens, when all they have to do is look under area 51.:)

Avatar1337

It looks more like a death ray :O…It’s not a moon it’s a….

disqus_c95iRLcttx

Star Wars fan. Cool. But I also like this quote from “Cloud Atlas”:

“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”

The Mauna Kea observatories are not the answer to mankind’s problems. It will not take us to other worlds and it will not be a beacon to the universe.

It will be 18 stories of concrete, steel and glass and set into the mountain in a new footprint that will be as permanent as the other 13 and it will be nothing but a giant spyglass that could go on the top of at least 4 other locations.

That laser that looks like a death ray..read about the legends of the battle between Pele, the fire goddess and Poliahu, the Goddess of Snow on Mauna Kea. Interesting.

Brian

Maybe we could use this to find obola’s soul. Nah not holding my breath.

Daniel Berke

Hey! I’m an astronomer living in Hawaii working for another observatory on Mauna Kea, and I just wanted to correct a few mistakes in the sentence saying Native Hawaiians believe the slopes of volcanoes are sacred ground. First, this is incorrect: the entire Hawaiian island chain is made up of volcanoes, *every square foot of land* is part of the slope of one volcano or another, and people here have no problems building on them. *Some* people of Native Hawaiian ancestry (mostly the portion trying to revive ancient Hawaiian culture and religion) feel reverence for the summits of a *few* of the five volcanoes that make up the Big Island of Hawaii; specifically, Kīlauea is known in oral legend as home of the volcano goddess Pele, while the summit of Mauna Kea is revered for being the highest point in the entire island chain and the first place that the sun’s light touches in the morning, and was traditionally only accessible by certain members of the kahuna (priests).

Anyway, that’s why some people see additional construction on the summit of Mauna Kea as a bad thing. But there are also plenty of locals who are in favor of astronomy (I have plenty of local people for co-workers, for instance), they just don’t tend to get as much media coverage.

dan_2000

*every square foot of land* My goodness, words out of the primitive past. Show yourself to be a person of this century and tell us “every square metre of land”

Ruby

He’s from Hawaii. They still use feet there.

dan_2000

So? Does that in some way make it impossible to say or write square metre? Is it forbidden? You are not just speaking to people in your village when posting comments on the internet. You are speaking to the whole world, and unless you want to be looked down upon as a Luddite from some bygone era, you bend a little to conform to the world’s chosen standards. Others make an effort to speak in English so you and him don’t have to struggle with a foreign language. The least you can do is make an effort to speak metric so the rest of us can understand without running to a calculator. Otherwise it is plain rudeness. There is no excuse.

Daniel Berke

There, edited in the interest of international sensitivity. :)

Christian George

The units are irrelevant in the context of Mr. Berke’s post, as all of the land is volcanic whether you want to measure it in square meters or feet. I would say its rude calling people “ignorant” and “Luddites” with zero basis other than having used the term “feet”. Don’t be a pedant. There is no excuse.

cmatofte

I would think that if Pele has a problem with this telescope she’ll probably take care of it herself.

disqus_c95iRLcttx

All of the summits are sacred but Mauna Kea’s is the most sacred. You claim: “the summit of Mauna Kea is revered for being the highest point in the entire island chain and the first place that the sun’s light touches in the morning, and was traditionally only accessible by certain members of the kahuna (priests).”
That isn’t even a counter to anything. its just a random fact.

Mauna Kea, Maunakea, Mauna a Wakea…the mountain of Wakea, the sky father who weds Papa and gives birth to Hawaii Island, the first born. Mauna Kea is Hawaii’s naval.

Wakea and Papa were also seafaring navigators who used the stars to find Hawaii. Their line is remembered in the oral chants that record the history of the Hawaiian people.

That is why your information is both wrong and a false argument of support for this project.

RATBURL

That’s alot of money

SuperTech

1.4 billion would have made a great down payment on a space elevator.
We’ll never get there unless we get up off our collective butts and go.

dan_2000

Forget it! America’s days in space are over. The Indians build their craft in the metric system for only 10 % of what it cost the Americans to do.

YaPiDo

Who pays for this stuff? Why?

openeyes00

You could ask that about anything couldn’t you, and I bet most of those things would be less productive and interesting as this.

Only about 1% I have heard of people produce food today compared to 100 years ago when it was about 30% of the population.
If basic needs like food are produced with so little where is all the extra value in money going?

I would like to think we are using our extra value creation wisely, fairly and humanely but I am pretty sure we are not as a species.

Irene Petty

I really want to know who pays for it too!

Octo

What, it’s going to take 8 years to build this thing??

BtotheT

It’ll have to do until we prioritize hubble’s next gen descendant higher on our econmic priority list.

Randy Zeitman

This telescope is a remarkable achievement.

But suppose you are Dictator of the world. Do you spend $1.4 billion on this or running water in Africa?

(Is there even a thought to do it then? Don’t you spend all that money on those very same scientists and tell them … ‘Would you please use your one in a million skills to help save about 20% of the people on the planet before you pursue this endeavor which is more about curiosity than saving lives?’)

If you’re position is ‘we can have both’ then I say lets so the water-sanitation goal first and then as a reward mankind can have the telescope.

What are the arguments against setting up a goal-reward system with public monies just as one reasonably would with their own child?

openeyes00

I like the sentiment of what your saying but am not sure it is practical sadly. We only spend about 2% of Global GDP annually on science, we should spend more to make the economic pie bigger because that is what scientific advancements do. If we stopped making scientific advancements tomorrow we would have economies falling apart worldwide. We have no choice really but to improve our scientific knowledge as it’s like breathing, stop and we are dead.

Randy Zeitman

I don’t understand what the relevance is of the 2% or who is saying anything about ceasing scientific advancements. My sole complaint is where to spend the money, not that we shouldn’t.

openeyes00

My comment was not a personal attack, it is just my general feelings on the matter of scientific spending.

There will always be other things to spend money on from water for the thirsty to schools etc. Some people think the free market would do the best job at solving everything, maybe they are right as companies could team up on big billion $ projects.

Personally I think we should spend more than what we do on science, the 2%. Since science is what makes everything better from cheaper energy, health, work, food, etc.

This is not “a case of the age-old clash of tradition with scientific progress.” It is a case of the TMT being approved during a prolonged and illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States that began on August 12, 1898. Hawaiʻi is occupied because there is no treaty of cession to transfer Hawaiian sovereignty to the United States. Furthermore, the Newlands Resolution, Organic Act, and Statehood Act are laws of Congress which have no constitutional force and effect beyond the borders of the 49 U.S. states. Moreover, none of these laws name any of the Hawaiian Islands as a defined territory of the “50th State,” which is required to exercise sovereignty. Instead, the U.S. has been exercising an occupation of Hawaiʻi for the past 121 years. http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org

Random Anonymous

Yes, Ok, but will this help me watch my neighbor get undressed?

georgiypotulov

Its just so unfortunate to see how this world as a whole values things.. We spend over 1.4 billion dollars on an instrument just to learn about things in the outer space while 3/4 of the world are currently starving. What an imbalance we have created, and the priorities of this world as a whole is completely backwards.. Ehh, what can we do about it though.

Lester Whitacre

If the 30m telescope is supposed to be better than the Hubbel telescope, why aren’t; we building a better version of the Hubbel? It seems as if every astronomical picture I see was captured by the Hubbel telescope.

They also said that we haven’t return to the moon in 40 years because we have no reason to go there. Why not build an observatory on the moon? If we can’t build an observatory on the moon, what makes us think we can build life-sustaining systems on Mars?

Besides, there is a 40m telescope being built in Chile. And there are plans for a 100m telescopes. The 30m doesn’t sound as impressive anymore.

Give NASA a real mission. Build better and bigger observatories in space or on the moon. We can kill two birds with one stone.

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